26. RIEKA
26
RIEKA
I ’d had every intention of confronting Wade. It may have been the adrenaline from the fight, perhaps Eleen’s words had fuelled the fire instead of quenching it. But I wasn’t going to rest this day without knowing the truth about why he’d killed Bennic.
S’vara came to check up on me just as I downed the tonic. I managed to convince her that I wanted to avoid the questions the others would undoubtedly have of my newly revealed fighting skills, at least for the next hour or so. And not wanting to be disturbed further, I pretended to fall asleep soon after, using my senses to inform me when Wade left. I’d been prepared to sneak out of MedCom and follow Rhydian and the others, expecting Wade to accompany them.
However, when Rhydian departed the carriage, Wade remained behind.
I waited twenty minutes before his scent and that of the Organic left MedCom together and headed towards the back of the train, through The Communal Sleepers .
Since arriving on this train, at times it had reminded me of home. An odd thought given the circumstances of my arrival. As my father had been a member of the warrior caste, our position within society meant a home would always be provided to one willing to serve the Celestial Offices.
The Borough with its narrow terrace houses, and roof landing ports, packed together like a deck of playing cards had always been a comfort. One always knew one’s neighbours. Morning promenades, even for warriors always consisted of the spouses and their children taking the long walk to Worship Square, where prayer wasn’t the only topic of conversation. It had been a world unto itself, bustling with life entirely devoted to preserving their community in a world where the rest of the castes saw us as nothing more than glorified bodyguards. Since leaving Deos, I’d avoided thinking of the Borough entirely.
The scent of leather and sweat milling about the sleepers reminded me of the men and women who’d returned from the barracks in the evenings, and the sound of mothers singing lullabies to their children. The sheer amount of so many Blessed in one place was comforting.
Nowhere I’d been in the last two years had truly encapsulated the scent of home until here. In this prison.
I passed all the way through the sleepers before picking up Wade’s scent in the last passageway. Access through the Water Storage Tanks was only possible through the upper floor passage where a tunnel stretched through the next two carriages.
I slowed my pace, Wade’s scent thick in the hollow tunnel and having not been this far down the train before I didn’t know what I would find on the other side of the doors.
There was a metal plate by the door written in what looked like Kensillan. Which I could still not read. However, beneath that, someone had translated it several times, some written in ink, others had been scratched into the plate. One was my native tongue. Someone had scratched out the words ‘Water Filtration’ and written another word.
Pipe Room.
I tread lightly as I entered the carriage.
It was a singular carriage with a lone walkway—a bridge really—that ran straight across. Further dividing the space were three horizontal paths that each led to some type of tech station at their respective walls. I peeked over the steel railing and found pipes below. A lot of pipes.
At the furthest cross-section of the walkway stood two figures, one was Wade, and the other surprisingly was Sal. Not wanting to be detected, hoping the momentum of the train didn’t affect the airflow in the compartment and allow the Pneumatic to sense my presence, I quickly climbed over the rail and lowered myself down onto the pipes in utter silence.
There were hundreds of these pipes, all different sizes creating a maze work of copper all centralised around a large rumbling machine.
Overhead, the steel bridge stretched between the second-floor entries. I kept myself beneath it, weaving through the pipes until I was directly under Sal and Wade’s scents. I looked up and found myself staring straight into Sal’s eyes. I slammed my hand over my mouth so fast to hush my gasp, that I broke skin against my teeth. It took me a moment to remember those green eyes, Sal’s eyes, could not see me.
I kept quiet, moving to my tiptoes to silence my movement, sticking close to the pipes, hoping the shadows kept me hidden. The rumble of the machine was my only protection against the blessing of the Pneumatic above. It wasn’t the ideal situation. The amount of interference I was getting from the machine meant I’d have to put all my concentration into my hearing, leaving my other senses vulnerable. I just had to hope no one caught me hiding down here.
I doubted I would be able to understand more than a few words of their conversation, Seja being the soup bowl language that it was. All I could hope was that I understood enough.
It was just my luck that Sal chose to speak in Old Prean instead. “When will they make their decision?”
I peered up to find the dark-haired medic still leaning on the bridge’s rail. Wade leaned into her, his frame overwhelmingly large in comparison to the petite mender.
“Another week maybe.” It was the first time I’d heard him speak. I’d imagined some thick grizzly, almost cold voice. Not the gentle demeanour or the soft silvery tone. He too spoke in Old Prean, rather than Seja.
Sal reciprocated the contact and turned into his body. “You just had to be the first didn’t you,” she said affectionally, sliding a hand up his broad chest where it came to rest on the bare skin of his neck, her fingers tracing the line of a phantom collar. “You know the Covenant is there for a reason, you big idiot.”
The Covenant. Could that be the oath Eleen was talking about?
Wade took her hand in his and brought it to his lips. “I told you already Salryah, I don’t regret killing him. That Charmer deserved what he got. I just regret it didn’t last longer.”
My stomach twisted.
I couldn’t decide what shocked me more, that the Organic, Sal, was romantically involved with Wade, or that Bennic was a Charmer.
I had no time to decide my next course of action. Several pairs of boots connected with the steel of the overhead bridge, followed by a voice that made my body instantly tense up.
“Good, you’re both here already.”